Irish Charm ruffled skirt

Supplies:

Two coordinating knit fabrics or Tshirts
Elastic (1/4 inch wide)
Grosgrain ribbon

Construction:

If you're using Tshirts to make this, cut a 6 inch wide strip from the bottom of Tshirt, including its hem. The benefit of using Tshirts is that you could use the hem as an elastic casing. Just unpick a few stitches from both ends of the strip.

Sew a seam at the 6 inch sides ( right sides together)

Cut a 5 inches strip from the coordinating knit.

Set your machine tension on high, stitch length maximum and sew a seam on one of the raw sides of the strip. This will gather the strip.
Sew a seam on the shorter sides ( right sides together).

Cut another 5 inches strip and repeat the above steps.

Draw a line at two and half inches from the bottom of first tier.

Sew the gathered strip to strip 1 along this line.

Sew the other gathered strip at the bottom of strip 1.

Tie a small bow with the grosgrain ribbon, sew it on the skirt.

Embellishing clothes for holidays: My first video blog

So I finally bit the bullet and jumped on the youtube wagon. Yes I recorded and uploaded my very first video tutorial. Here I'm in all my self-conscious glory, trying to tell you how to make holiday specific clothes ( when I am not busy feeling camera shy). I had to really fight the urge to run away from the camera and start typing.
But as I replayed and watched the video I begin to realize how efficient and effective video blogs can be. Hopefully this won't be the last one and some of you would find it interesting.

Top 10 Free Accessory tutorials roundup

Photo Credit: Flax and Twine

For some reason, I get a craving for making myself some nice accessories every spring. I don't know if its the anticipation of warm weather or I just need a break from the sewing machine every now and then.
I looked around the blogosphere for some nice accessory tutorials and found these gems ( pun intended) worth sharing. Hop on over to my hubpage to get the accessory tutorials cherry picked to share with you all. Let me know what you think and if you got some great ones up your sleeve, lets hear about them too.

My claim to fame: Over at Favecrafts blog today

I'm over at Favecrafts Blog today (Yay!!!). I'm the guest crafter for their weekly Meet and Make column.
I'm sharing some fun facts about my life and I'm also sharing a tutorial to make this rain mobile. Check out my brief introduction and rain mobile tutorial at Fave Crafts.

Easter bow tie dress - From Blooms And Bugs Studio

Argyle print pink bow tie dress - 12 mos $20

This bow tie Tshirt dress is hot off the griddle. Made with soft cotton Tshirt and stylish cotton woven argyle print. This dress matches girly romance with preppy style. The argyle print and the bow tie at the lend it just the right hint of preppy.

The zebra print grosgrain ribbon and lace flower add the romance and beauty to the dress.

The grosgrain ribbon ties in the back to give the excellent fit, while keeping the comfort factor intact.

The princess is ready for the brunch.

Lucky Layers Tiered Dress Pattern and Tutorial

Lucky Layers Tiered Dress Pattern and Tutorial is here now. This is by far the longest any project took me to complete and I'm so happy with the results.

Go here to get the pattern and tutorial for Lucky layers Dress.

Blog Makeover and JHP Designs Giveaway

I hope you have noticed the fresh new look of Blooms And Bugs today. Now my blog header looks exactly the way I wanted it to be. The credit for this blog makeover goes to Jill of JHP Designs. She is the person who patiently listened to my pretty incoherent ideas, Brought them to life with her magic fingers and then very patiently and creatively went over many many drafts to finally bring the design to this place.

She has a great graphic designs etsy store full of beautiful designs for any etsy shop. She is also very talented and patient with people like me who don't really know what they want until they see it and who would painstakingly go over every design element and color and again tell incoherently what they want to do about it.

Jill had also been a great communicator throughout our transaction. Sometimes I would get a response from her within minutes of my email, along with the design modifications I asked for. Customer service doesn't get any better than that.

Whats more! Jill has graciously agreed to sponsor a giveaway of one of the following to one winner:

Prize A: Blog header and button design
Prize B: Etsy Banner and Avatar design

The winner would be able to choose between A & B.

The giveaway is open to readers worldwide.


To enter the giveaway you need to comment on this post along with an email id. Please note that leaving an email id is essential and I will delete any entries without an email id.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment telling you did.

2. Post about the giveaway on your blog and leave me a comment telling you did.

3. Post the link to the giveaway on your facebook wall and leave me a comment telling you did.

Giveaway ends  Saturday, Mar 10, 2011.

For those of you who wouldn't want to wait for the giveaway and would like to buy the design directly from Jill, she has offered a coupon for 20% off on your order with coupon code BLOOMSNBUGS.